Signs and Symbols

J. M. Huxley
Aug 15, 2020
3 min read

Whoever said God doesn't communicate with signs and symbols hasn't experienced his artistic impressions firsthand.

Or read the Bible.

Because one would have to be blissfully colorblind, or stubbornly unaware, not to notice the way in which he reaches out to us.

Is STILL reaching out to us.

The obvious standout is the rainbow. But the Lamb and the Rock and the Dove are equally important.

As well as Milk and Honey, to my mind.

He is still creating and still messaging and still loving us with devotion. He is still customizing his approach to us on occasion too.

Which is why, once I understood the message of his rainbow to me on that day over a decade ago, the one in which he gave me a rainbow to assure me my daughter would be okay, he kept them coming. Once I grasped his methodology, I positioned myself to receive more.

It started with a rainbow over the plane in which my 14-year-old daughter, Kelsea, had boarded. She'd been scared. I'd been scared. My father had died in a commercial airline crash and any air travel we did naturally called this to mind. In short, my father's air disaster wasn't the only one in my life. It's a long story but one I never get sick of telling because, believe it or not, God showed up there.

In a rainbow.

Rainbows are still promises.

No one ever gets sick of a rainbow.

I've received a lot of rainbows over the years, some of which I've written about here, many of which I've noted in my book, Milk and Honey Land.

But rainbows aren't all of it. Not by a long shot. Because God didn't just create the rainbow as a symbol of his devotion for us. He created so much more.

One day, after I'd shared my rainbow testimony at a Kansas City church, a woman shared her dragonfly testimony with me. She said God was always sending her messages of love during the summer in the form of dragonflies. Whenever she'd think of him, she would see a dragonfly.

"I totally believe that!" I told her. And then I'd exited the building, walked to the parking lot outside, and gotten into my car to watch a dragonfly land on my window shield. Coincidence? Not a chance.

When my illustrator, Kate, drew up an illustration of my Kansas property for our children's book, Rainbow Land, it was a surprise to me. I hadn't asked her to do that. What wasn't a surprise was the very large dragonfly she placed in the sky. It would stand to reason. Coincidence? No way.

This morning I had the privilege to be on a video conference call with a group of Kansas City authors. During our time together, we prayed for one another and all walked away filled to the brim with the Spirit of God. Which is why, I believe, I began to see a lot of God signs after that.

I had to run my teenager into the city for work. Afterward, I sat in the parking lot for a moment and checked messages on my phone. That's when I noticed a post by an author in our publishing group who had just experienced a tornado in her backyard. Mercifully, her home had been untouched, and she thanked God for his goodness. Her logo is a blue butterfly, and she used it liberally in the post. I commented something about the goodness of God and my "rainbow perspective," and then looked up to a storefront with a blue butterfly painted on the front.

Next to a rainbow.

Coincidence?

Nope.

Sometimes we can experience the goodness of God through what he does for others.

I drove across the street to park in front of a shoe store and received a message from another author friend asking for prayers. Just then, a large dragonfly hovered in front of my window shield.

Definitely no coincidence.

You just have to notice these things.

Noticing grows notice. Speaking activates speech. Receiving releases more.